Sparks: Maurice Broaddus

Maurice Broaddus and I share a publisher in Angry Robot Books, and we’ve share a table of contents, too, in Voices from the Past from HH Books. His work is full of integrity and horror, and he has this way of drawing you so deep into the character it takes you a minute or two to blink out when the story ends.

“My novella Bleed With Me debuts in October from Delirium Books as a limited edition hardcover (which is sold out) as well as an ebook. It takes place in the same universe as my urban fantasy series, the Knights of Breton Court. In book two of the series, King’s Justice, there is a throwaway line: “Hear what happened to The Pall?”

The Pall was a character only mentioned in book one, King Maker, and Bleed With Me takes place between the two books.

That said, the idea for Bleed With Me came from a couple of places. For one, I was fascinated with the idea that two people can share a fundamental, instant connection. That spark or chemistry or whatever—when you find yourself completed by another and you didn’t even realize that you weren’t whole—and I was thinking about what that might look like in its extreme.

Also, like with the Knights of Breton Court series, Bleed With Me found many of its characters originating with the work I was doing with Outreach Inc, a ministry that works with homeless teenagers. That’s why their stories are the focus of the series and with this novella.

As for The Pall himself, I had been watching a marathon of my favorite animated satire, The Boondocks. They had a character named “A Pimp Named Slickback” who demanded that he be called “A Pimp Named Slickback” not just Slickback. Being true to one’s name is important, and I loved the image of a pimp considering himself a pall on the streets.

So yeah, watching people date, doing ministry work on the streets, and watching television…sadly, this pretty much sums up a lot of how I get my ideas.”